Monday, June 25, 2007

Wedding Dresses

Undoubtedly, a wedding is one of the most precious and memorable moments in life. To make this occasion more remarkable, certain customs have been practiced, like the special wedding dress, the wedding cake, etc. The bride's dress is given special importance and care is taken to make her look like an angel in her beautiful wedding gown. The phrase, "dressed up," is perfectly suited for a wedding, where both the bride and the groom are in their best attire.

The wedding dress is the dress worn by the bride during the wedding ceremony. "Dress maketh a man." Befittingly, the wedding dress or the bridal gown is usually gorgeous and graceful to reflect the most precious moment in life--marriage. The color, texture, design, etc. of the wedding gown is naturally the bride's choice. White is a popular color for American wedding dresses, as white is associated with qualities like purity, peace and chastity. Nevertheless, the gown may also be in shades of white like ivory or eggshell.

The background of the wedding governs the nature of the wedding attire. In other words, the society, the culture, and the customs followed by the parties involved in the wedding are key factors in the making of the wedding dress.

In the earlier days, any color other than black or red was acceptable for the wedding gown. A face veil was also worn. The custom of wearing a white dress at a wedding was imitated from the royal weddings, wherein the queen wore a beautiful white wedding gown with a long train behind. This idea was gained from peacocks, which were honored as royal birds.

For the Chinese, the red dress is the most preferred one for weddings. The Chinese consider red to be a lucky color. The Indians also consider red as a color of good omen, so brides in India wear a red sari, which is bright and colorful too. But this color is avoided in Western countries.